by Steve Dwyer

The trend is becoming ubiquitous: larger-scale brownfield conversions into technology or innovation centers. The examples are several. A couple months ago we reported on Brown University, Cranston, R.I., poised to reshape a massive, century-old power station that sat vacant on the Providence River along its campus. 

That end-use envisions the establishment of an innovation center-all part of creating "innovation districts" for driving research and development.  Now comes word that Pennsylvania is prepared to earmark $15 million in tax credits to transform a former steel mill in the Pittsburgh metro area into a technology hub, as reported in late December in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

The announcement to allocate tax credits by PA Gov. Tom Wolf to expedite construction at Hazelwood Green, which is the site of a massive abandoned steel mill, culminates the efforts of a coalition of nonprofits eager to transform the footprint into a bustling corporate hub for research and technology.

This project has great potential for revitalizing an unused brownfield site and bringing jobs and additional high-tech employers to Hazelwood. The coalition is "excited about the business synergies that could be created here to benefit the local community and the entire region." 

Owned by three prominent Pittsburgh foundations since 2002, the 178-acre property along the Monogahela River formerly known as Almono is slated for redevelopment as a green high-tech center with space for housing, offices and recreation. The property is jointly owned by the Richard King Mellon, Benedum Foundations and The Heinz Endowments.

The Commonwealth Cornerstone Group's New Markets Tax Credit funding ensures that the first of three office buildings planned at Pittsburgh's last big brownfield can begin construction early this year and be ready for occupants by spring 2019, Donald Smith, president of Regional Industrial Development Corp. (RIDC), a nonprofit real estate developer, told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

It will be interesting to watch the project take shape during this calendar year, where the first building is estimated to cost $46 million. Carnegie Mellon University's (CMU) Advanced Robotics Manufacturing (ARM) Institute is slated to be the modern Mill 19's first tenant.

One mission statement championed with large-scale efforts like this one is: "past is prologue." 

Like so many other redevelopers have done in the past with similar projects, the Hazelwood sponsors are striving to emphasize the best of Pittsburgh's past, demonstrated by its rich steel-mill heritage, and meld that with the best of its future-that is, the technology expertise that CMU and the other companies will use as their cornerstone.  

Under a 10-year lease with renewal options, the ARM Institute and Manufacturing Futures Initiative will take up two floors of a 94,000-square-foot building, the first of three set to be built within the 264,000-square-foot steel superstructure steel frame of the old mill -a concept described as "building within a building."

The vision behind Hazelwood Green has been more than 15 years in the making. In addition to building residences and more office space for tech-minded companies, plans for Hazelwood Green include a 2.5-acre public space and constructing a new street running the length of the property. 

Smith said getting involved in Hazelwood Green made perfect sense for RIDC, which has access to subsidies that for-profit entities don't and specializes in financing projects that benefit the public.

In total, RIDC has received about $43 million combined in local, state and corporate tax credits toward the first phase of the Mill 19 project, including funding from Pittsburgh's Urban Redevelopment Authority, PNC Bank and Telesis. After financing and administrative costs, the contribution translates into a net benefit of about $7 million toward the $46 million project, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.